Monomenthyl succinate (MMS), also known as butanedioic acid monomenthyl ester, is a flavor compound utilized for its cooling effects in oral health care products and chewing gum, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,725,865 and 5,843,466. MMS is generally recognized as safe (GRAS) for products sold in the United States. Currently, MMS is synthetically produced for commercial use.
However, MMS can not be marketed as nature identical since its presence in natural sources has not been demonstrated. This limits the marketing of MMS-containing products in some countries. Therefore it would be desirable to find a natural source of MMS.